Free Final Quest by B. C. Harris

Capurni is saying, I hear a strange new noise, something like a bark.
    Turning in the direction of the sound, there’s a little man perched on his hind legs. He looks at me, his tongue wagging like a dog and his tail swaying back and forth.
    As I step towards him, he jumps away like a rabbit, disappearing into the dense jungle.
    If I thought the Land of Limnits was peculiar, then what I’m now seeing makes that place seem normal.
    Jamie touches a massive leaf on a tree. As he does this, the leaf curls up, hisses, and suddenly crawls like a snake to another branch.
    “Amazing,” Capurni says. “This island has blossomed from being a barren place into a magnificent world of diverse creatures.”
    I think of the dystopian novels I studied at school where civilizations that survived various forms of holocausts lived in barren worlds. None of the authors ever suggested that a world disaster might cause evolution to move in new creative directions.
    I watch a bird flying overhead. Then I realize its face is on its underside, almost like the face of a stingray back in my world, except that the face is not at the front of the creature, but underneath where normally its belly would be. The weird bird-like creature has a flowing multi-colored tail that is two or three times longer than its body. At the head of the body where one would expect its face is a plume of feathers like a headdress. As I look closer, I notice two large black dots, resembling eyes, at the end of its long tail. Immediately I think of a butterfly fish in our ocean back home. Some butterfly fish have a large black dot on their tails that resembles an eye. This often allows the butterfly fish to escape as an attacking fish grabs for its tail instead of its head.
    I try to peer through the thick vegetation.
    Capurni, like Jamie and I, is inspecting everything he can see around him. It’s as though we’re standing in a Disney fantasyland.
    “Listen,” Jamie says abruptly.
    I freeze.
    “What is it?” I say in a loud whisper.
    “I think I hear running water,” Jamie says. “It sounds like it could be a waterfall.”
    Attempting to listen for the sound of running water, I think I hear it as well.
    “Yes, I hear something like water rushing in a stream,” I say.
    “Over here,” Jamie says, as he begins to push himself through a maze of branches, leaves, and vines.
    “Be careful,” Capurni says.
    No sooner have the words left Capurni’s mouth, than a huge bush pounces on Jamie.
    Instantly, Jamie is caught in the arms of the bush as though a dozen snakes have curled around him.
    “Help me!” Jamie shouts.
    I point my emerald at the creature that is beginning to crush Jamie, and shout, “Abruella!”
    A bolt of lightning strikes part of the plant-like creature, leaving one of its arms smoldering.
    Jamie is turning blue. The bush is choking him.
    Unfortunately, Jamie is so entangled in the bush that I’m not sure I can continue to use my emerald. One of the lightning bolts might hit him.
    Another scream erupts.
    A few steps away from me is a creature that has a large flat tail like a beaver, except that the creature looks like a sheep dog. As hard as I look, I can’t see the face of the creature. It’s buried beneath a thick coat of grey and white fur. It’s as though a sheep dog and a beaver transformed into a new creature.
    The creature screams again as it spins towards the bush that is strangling Jamie.
    The furry creature spins at the base of the bush. Its large flat tail smashes against the bush like an axe.
    I hear a sorrowful groan. It’s from the bush that is attacking Jamie. Its arms begin to fall away from him.
    Like a lumberjack chopping down a tree, the furry creature swings its tail again and again into the branches of the bush.
    Jamie leaps free. I rush to him. Although he’s gasping for breath, I wrap my arms tightly around him.
    “Please don’t die,” I say. “You’re the one person I can’t live without.”
    Jamie’s eyes